By Ben Riley-Smith, and agencies4:46PM GMT 12 Nov 2013Follow
A wedding organiser stole more than £10,000 from marrying couples by secretly diverting cheques into her own bank account, a court has heard.
Patricia "Lee" Glancy promised customers celebrating at the Wentworth Golf Club she would fill in blank cheques with the club's details before adding her own.
Glancy claimed she was acting to support a dying friend and gave most of the money away to cancer charities, while admitting some was spent on furnishings.
Yet Judge Peter Moss said there was "not a shred of evidence" to support the claim that Glancy had given the stolen cash to charity.
He told the defence: "Your client has committed a grave fraud, a sustained fraud. She has the propensity to be dishonest.
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"I'm told she has given it to charity. There's not a shred of evidence to support it."
When told the defendant had not put money aside because she had been focusing on funding her legal representation, the judge said: "I'm going to be blunt – I just don't believe her. I think I'm being sold a dummy."
Trina Little, prosecuting, said Glancy was involved in five incidents: Four where parties paid by cheque and one involving a bank transfer.
Couple Lisa Patel and Mo Maan had just under £1,940 pounds diverted without their knowledge.
Lauren Sandford's father wrote a cheque for £2,650 pounds as a deposit for his daughter's wedding to Gary Kearton.
A cheque of simmilar value for the reception of Daniella Field and Matt Joy failed to land in the club's account.
Then £1,239 pounds for Nikki Hitchmore and Hooverney Martinez's big day was taken, before Nadine Maraj and Shiraz Sharif had just over £2,300 pounds vanish.
In total Glancy defrauded the brides- and grooms-to-be of nearly £10,800 pounds between March 1 and June 6 this year.
It was only when Lisa Patel emailed and received a message saying Glancy had left the club that the problem came to light.
Wentworth Golf Club began an investigation into the activities of Glancy, who had already resigned. They could not find the files as the fraudster had taken them with her.
Wentworth, in Virginia Water, Surrey, becomes the centre of the golfing world each year when its manicured greens and fairways play host to the PGA championship.
On August 7, after consulting her lawyers, Glancy went to police in Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey, and confessed to her crimes. She was charged with five counts of committing fraud by false representation, which she admitted.
Miss Little said Glancy had told police she was extremely sorry for her actions and that a friend of hers, Thelma Harte, was suffering from terminal cancer and some of the money was given to a cancer charity and "to make some of her wishes come true".
Robert Spencer-Bernard, defending, confirmed in mitigation that Thelma had passed away and he referred to the order of service from her funeral, at which Glancy spoke, in which the deceased's children had thanked those who had helped realise her dream of visiting Canada.
He said: "Ironically one of the ways in which it went was by goods from the golf club shop which were then auctioned at various functions to raise money to pass over for Thelma and also other cancer charities.
"She had also sustained the loss of personal friends. It appears that cancer in one form or another seems to run in her family. She has lost her uncle, grandmother and her sister, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer."
He said his client had been under very considerable emotional stress, in part due to a breakdown in a relationship.
The judge told him: "What I'm trying to find out is there any material that the Crown have to either prove or disprove where the money went? The answer is no and I'm looking to you to show me where the money went."
The judge concluded the hearing, at Guildford Crown Court, by telling the defence: "I suspect very strongly there is no evidence of this because it isn't true.
"This was a really, really mean offence, in relation to people getting married and really mean to her employers, who trusted her."
He deferred sentence until January 30, by which time he demanded proof from Glancy as to what had happened to the money and also that she had begun to put cash aside to refund the club.
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